iPhone 14 Plus component orders near zero, amid low demand

AppleInsider · February 2, 2023 8:23PM

Apple has cut iPhone 14 Plus display orders down to a small portion of total iPhone shipments, as demand is apparently far below Apple's initial expectations.

iPhone 14 Plus sits at an awkward space in Apple's lineup

The iPhone 14 Plus took the place of the iPhone 13 mini in Apple's lineup due to low demand for the smaller device. However, it seems that the size wasn't an issue, but rather redundancy in the lineup, as the new model hasn't fared well either.

According to information provided by display supply chain analyst Ross Young to his Twitter super followers, the iPhone 14 Plus display shipments sunk to next to nothing, in the period where Apple fine-tunes production orders to accommodate consumer behavior. A chart shows a healthy mix of display orders for all iPhone 14 models until November 2022, when iPhone 14 Plus dropped significantly and then disappeared from the chart through January.

A small sliver of shipments can be seen in February, showing Apple is now restocking iPhone 14 Plus inventory. However, this indicates the other models were in much higher demand throughout the quarter.

The chart also indicates iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max make up 75% of shipments in December and are projected to reach 80% by the end of February. However, Young shared a separate chart showing that overall panel orders for the entire iPhone 14 lineup will fall behind iPhone 13 panel orders in February.

iPhone display order mix provided by Ross Young

It isn't clear why Apple is struggling to sell the iPhone 14 Plus, other than typical historical demand for the higher-end closer to launch, and the lower as the cycle progresses. It could also be because it is in essence a new product category category, paired with proximity to the Pro lineup price.

Low demand for an iPhone isn't exactly a death sentence. Apple sells such a high volume of iPhones that its lowest-selling device still generates significant revenue.

Read on AppleInsider

cgwerks · February 2, 2023 8:32PM

By Apple-logic, maybe time to cut that model, too?

Maybe they should just pick the top seller in each category of iPhone, iPad, laptop, and desktop and reduce their product grid to 4, eh?

#SillyLogicExperimentsByApple

retrogusto · February 2, 2023 8:41PM

I guess we’ll find out today if this has any basis in reality. The problem with these supply-chain rumors is that you have to have reliable access to every supplier for a given component for it to mean anything, and Apple tries to maintain multiple suppliers in multiple regions for anything they can, to mitigate risk, as Tim Cook has pointed out repeatedly. And even if the components are 100% sourced from one company, they may not all come from one factory, so one factory’s data might be meaningless on its own.

danox · February 2, 2023 8:48PM

So a lower end iPhone sold fewer units than the two upper end iPhones and the two higher iPhones out sold the two lower end iPhones? Is that a problem?

edited February 2023

racerhomie3 · February 2, 2023 9:12PM

In India 14 Plus is turning to be a hit , with online retailers selling it around $920. So it should be steady seller over the next 2-4 years when it drops to $500-600 in the South East Asia region

jdw · February 2, 2023 9:23PM

It's best we ignore the entire line of iPhone 14 numbers altogether in light of the fact most people now know the iPhone 15 will be getting some significant updates like USB-C. That combined with rumors about the periscope camera should lead many more people to buy into the iPhone 15 than 14, and it could very well be that many people are holding out for that model, rather than get any model of iPhone 14. Consider the influence that Eve Jobs had on the iPhone 14 line too...

https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-daughter-was-right-regret-iphone-14-pro-max-2022-9

y2an · February 2, 2023 9:44PM

Perhaps they focussed recovery on the Pro line so needed smaller volumes of Plus screens for
a while. Looking at one component doesn’t get you an answer!

lkrupp · February 2, 2023 9:57PM

iPhone 14 Plus component orders near zero, amid low demand

Who says? Oh, some supply chain analyst. Right.

lam92103 · February 2, 2023 10:13PM

So then people do want smaller phones after all, huh?

Looking at the Plus, it makes no sense. No dynamic island, no A16, only 2 cameras, no optical zoom (.5 doesn't count as zoom). Rather pay a little more and get the ProMax or the Pro. Atleast then you get some new features

For the budget conscious, the normal iPhone makes way more sense. Not only is it quite a bit cheaper but is more or less identical to the Plus in terms of specs.

edited February 2023

cgwerks · February 2, 2023 11:21PM

lam92103 said:

So then people do want smaller phones after all, huh?

Yeah, who knows, right? LOL
But, my point is that phone sizes aren’t about sales numbers. They are use-case and ergonomics issues. So long as a particular form-factor isn’t selling so poorly it doesn’t come out to produce it (and even then, might be worth keeping in the big picture), there should be ‘mini’, regular, big, and maybe even bigger sizes. Just like there should be tiny laptops and bigger ones, or Mac mini, Studio, and Pro. (Or, trucks, cars, vans, sport cars, etc. and not just SUVs, even if they are the biggest sellers).

filemakerfeller · February 3, 2023 1:58AM

New year, same BS.

It couldn't possibly be that Apple is sourcing from another supplier, or maybe has assembled enough iPhones to meet forecasted demand for the next few months, or some other reason that makes more sense - like, oh, the wind changed.

AI, please put your new rumour-reliability graphic on this with a rating of -25%.

anilu_777 · February 3, 2023 3:45AM

Can someone explain how a phone that launched in September sold any numbers at all in June/July/August prior to launch??

exceptionhandler · February 4, 2023 5:41AM

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I for one would like to see 3 models iPhone mini, iPhone, iPhone plus… none of this pro none sense. Only major differences would be screen/battery size and camera modules. And the budget phone ends up just being last years model or the SE.

cgwerks · February 4, 2023 4:34PM

exceptionhandler said:

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I for one would like to see 3 models iPhone mini, iPhone, iPhone plus… none of this pro none sense. Only major differences would be screen/battery size and camera modules. And the budget phone ends up just being last years model or the SE.

Yes, that would be excellent!

They should have a budget phone (at least one), but I don’t know the size on that (I suppose poor people wouldn’t mind a couple size options, too… but using a phone as a primary computing device pushes larger-screen necessity). I think if it were last year’s model, that would erode new sales a bit too much. The SE (if it has to be the cheap phone), makes sense as last design revision, rather than last year, with a couple chip-generations back powering it.

But, IMO, this really isn’t complicated. Apple is ‘thinking’ way, way too hard about this.

waveparticle · February 4, 2023 5:38PM

There was news on AI that Apple is moving production of iPhone Plus to India. Maybe this is the real reason why components orders near zero? Most components are being delivered to India. So the old spy chain detected no new orders in China?

iPhone 14 Plus component orders near zero, amid low demand

Comments

iPhone 14 Plus component orders near zero, amid low demand